3PI Eddie Fontaigne

Advice About Non-fiction In Fantasy Fiction

(Yes, that "novelist conscience" part of my description does in fact mean something.  I wont always expound on political, social, and religious issues here.  Some times I'll be so kind as to share with you what I do for my clients.  Benefit from it if you will.  Here's your first chance.)

Fantasy fiction is a great place to discuss real issues, in fact that's why many of my clients write it. The typical reader's real life is just way too full of immediate every day concerns to be easily coaxed into thinking about other things, but if you make one of those other things part of the background of a fun fantasy story, you've got them. Thanks to the Harry Potter sequence, as an example (not one of my clients, I should clarify), millions of people have now thought a lot about the consequences of being an orphan raised by an aunt and uncle. While not all orphans raised by aunts and uncles are integral parts of major power struggles, they all still have potential issues that no doubt matter a great deal to them, and J. K. Rowling has likely already made a positive difference in at least a few lives just because of that choice of character background.

An example from one of my clients is a story idea he has temporarily shelved, where a fourteen year old boy is being treated chemically for mood swings related to his parents' divorce. That's the background. The fantasy story is that these drugs he's on have a side effect that causes him to wander into magically powerful peoples' minds when he sleeps, where he is the helpless observer of what they do and think. Like the Harry Potter sequence, this novel would draw readers with the fantasy elements and the issue of chemically treating children for various things would be that added bonus that might not otherwise have received as much thought. If he ever does pick this one up again, and if he follows the rest of my advice below, he'll have a good chance to positively impact the lives of children around the world and across the ages.

No Ax-grinding

Here's what Rowling didn't do and my client must not do as well, with any of his works. No ax-grinding.

If we measure the success of good fiction entirely by its current readership we could find many examples of successful ax-grinders. Many science fiction writers do it all the time, going out of their way for example to say religion is a thing of the past in their stories. They're grinding their ax against organized religion and seem to be getting away with it. That is if the standard is only current readership.

What they're actually doing is betting their legacies on their predictions of the future. If 2412 rolls along and most of the people in the world's most powerful country are still believers in some god, any god, the works of these 20^th century authors will be almost assuredly irrelevant and long forgotten. And, while that is generally true of most centuries old works of fiction, it's not true of the great ones, and that's what good fiction writers should be aiming for, long legacies that span multiple centuries. As far as I'm concerned, if you're target audience is only the current living population, you don't need me. You can freely write whatever junk will sell, and more power to you for that's an impressive talent in itself, but money can't buy you self-respect. It also can't buy you a legacy that truly has a part of you in it, a name on a building perhaps, but not a piece of you.

The more obvious problem with ax-grinding is it turns off potential readers right now. A successful writer will come to know fairly specifically who their readers are, and it's tempting to take chances offending what they assume to be their non-readers. Many science fiction authors for example can't imagine many religious people liking science fiction, so making fun of people who believe in a deity seems safe to them. Many of these writers might be surprised if they knew just how many science fiction fans go to church or attend attend synagogue. Many such fans tell me they simply forgive such a writer if his story is good enough, but that forgiveness still comes with a price. Their standard for that writer keeping their interest is raised, and even worse for the author's cause, the reader's a lot less likely to recommend the book to someone else, even if the story was pretty good. Word of mouth is huge in this business. Ax-grinding, no matter what your favorite ax may be, is a drag both on your book's market success and on your legacy.

Avoid direct politics : Keep time in perspective :

This final bit of advice should probably been placed up front. If I'd done that everyone who even glanced at this post would have come away with the crowned jewel of legacy building in fiction writing. Of course I couldn't place that up front, since I don't want mere glancers to get this. Here it is, and I wont even highlight in any way like has become my style to do everywhere else. Just for the actual readers, this jewel is. A good piece of fiction has a longer life span than politicians and their political causes, so don't tie your fiction to either. To do so is like chaining yourself to an anchor. It will go down eventually and when it does, so will the relevance of your work. God didn't create story tellers so they could get co-opted by mere politicians.

An artist's snobbish bluster you might say? Well consider this. I'll name two people from history and you tell me which one has effected the most people across the years, Alexander the Great or Homer? Let me name another pair, Elizabeth I or Shakespeare? There is no arguing that Alexander and Elizabeth didn't have huge impacts on human history, but the influence of Homer and Shakespeare continues very directly even to this day and transcends them. These authors of fiction influence us even when we don't fully realize it. Thanks to Homer, people around the world have a greater appreciation for balance in their lives than they would have without his works. Thanks to Shakespeare millions of people today, not counting all those who've lived before us, know of the internal torment that comes from “having blood on your hands”. I could go on and will, a tad anyways.

I would be amiss if I didn't add the example of Robert the Bruce and Robert Burns. One liberated Scotland from English tyranny, the other reminded us of the mess we make of our lives when we “practice to deceive”, and Burns even put the inspiring words in Bruce's mouth at the battle of Bannockburn in his poem by the same name. Here are some of my favorites,

“By Oppression's woes and pains! 

By your sons in servile chains!

We will drain our dearest veins,

But they shall be free!”

Not all writer's works live on to shape future thoughts, but by comparison no world leader's legacy does at all. When we set out to tell stories we should realize the gravity of our art. It is nothing small and we should never lower it to the level of nations and their leaders. Our stories speak to them, and they only speak to our stories when they themselves tell stories.